The Lovely Chocolate Mob - By Richard J. Bennett Page 0,95

fortune. It certainly looks suspicious to me; what do you think?”

Darla Bell: “Do you think he had anything to do with the premature death of your beloved grandfather, Cornelius Lovely?”

Dr. Burke stood up. “Premature death? He was 94 years old, for Pete’s sake!”

“Shh! Shh! I want to hear this,” I said. Franklin sat back down.

Susan Lovely: “My grandfather was healthy before he died. It certainly would be beneficial for Franklin to remove my grandfather if he indeed were the one who stole and made off with my rightful fortune. I hope the police find him before he spends it all on gambling and wild women!”

Franklin stood up again. “Gambling? Wild women? What the heck?”

Walter started laughing yet tried to stifle himself. He turned to Dr. Burke and said, “She’s thrown you under the bus, Gus!” I looked at the television and saw a little movement in the background. “Who’s that?” I asked.

There was a young man, dressed in a florescent blue “Speedo” bathing suit and a chromed chain necklace, bringing a drink to Susan Lovely on a platter. “I think that’s the new pool boy,” muttered Dr. Burke. “Susan said she needed someone to clean her pool and was looking for someone to hire.”

The young man leaned down for Susan to take her drink. “Thank you, Julio,” she said. He leaned down further to kiss her square on the lips, in front of Darla Bell and the camera. When he stood up to leave, Susan smiled at Darla. “It is so hard to find such good help these days. I am truly blessed even though I am suffering from financial deprivation.”

Franklin stood up and walked out of the room. He could only go one place for privacy, the bathroom, and he shut the door. We were silent out of respect for his feelings but were also suppressing our laughter all the same. Things had gone from bad to worse for Franklin. Walter and I looked at each other and just shook our heads. Walter observed, “She doesn’t seem to be missing Franklin too much, do you think?”

I chuckled and answered, “No, not a bit.”

Darla Bell came back on the screen, saying, “Still no sign of the missing family physician, Dr. Franklin Burke. Thief, murderer, or both? Will the missing money ever be found? Will Susan Lovely’s financial estate ever be able to recover from this blow? Will the town of Lovely recover from the premature death of Cornelius Lovely, founder, employer, and benefactor? Will the police ever find the fugitive? Stay tuned to KDBC news for further developments! This is Darla Bell, reporting from the community of ‘Sweet Dreams.’”

Before turning the television off via remote, Walter said to himself, “Lookin’ well, Darla Bell…”

The Kids

Dr. Burke walked around for the next few days in a gloomy despair; he kept busy around the house, but the workload had fallen off considerably, as though he couldn’t talk himself into working. He would exercise a little, but his heart wasn’t in it, and he’d quit halfway through any push-ups or sit-ups. He had even taken to reading from Mother’s huge Bible that I kept on the coffee table in the den. It seemed to comfort him a little, but since his gloom was worse than we had seen before, Walter, David, and I decided we should do something to cheer up the good doctor. He needed to see his kids.

They were at school for most of the day and at night were coming back home to stay with Helen. J.R. was active in sports, and since summer was coming up, the little leagues were getting an early start. The teams were already formed, uniforms bought, and schedules printed. We were going to treat Dr. Burke to a little league game. He needed to get out, and it was doubtful there was too much criminal activity in the city park for the police to worry about.

The night of the first game we dressed Dr. Burke up in the wig, sunglasses, and mustache, and since he was wearing my clothes, he looked more like a regular person than a doctor. He certainly wasn’t wearing a high-dollar outfit, or upper-crust “recreation” clothes. He had to settle for faded blue jeans, tennis shoes, a green T-shirt, and an unbuttoned blue-collared, long-sleeved shirt over it, with the tail hanging out and sleeves rolled-up.

I had seen Helen at the marriage counseling meetings and told her that, if she were able, to have as many of the girls at J.R.’s baseball